David Atherton's recipe for crunchy vegan granola

From theguardian.com

Whipped aquafaba gives extra crunch to this toasty, nutty, fruity and tweakable breakfast treat, fragrant with caraway and coconut

Many people have good granola recipes, but I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking this one. You can change the flavours to suit your taste. Sometimes I like it spicier and at other times I like it zesty.

This granola isn’t very sweet, so you can up the agave syrup or increase the dried-fruit content. Egg white is often used to get the crunchy clusters without increasing the sugar content, but aquafaba works just as well and is vegan-friendly. This granola is best sprinkled on to a bowl of yoghurt and fruit, but works, too, mixed into your crumble topping to give it a real crunch.

             As sweet or zesty as you want it ... David Atherton’s crunchy vegan granola.                                                                                Photograph: David Atherton

40g amaranth seeds
50g almonds
50g hazelnuts
50g raw, unsalted peanuts
50g pumpkin seeds
½ tsp salt
2 tsp caraway seeds
80g porridge oats
80g rolled oats
20g buckwheat flour (or plain flour)
50g desiccated coconut
40g any vegetable oil
100ml agave syrup (or your preferred sweetener)
70ml aquafaba (chickpea water)
100g dried apricots
100g dried prunes

Preheat oven to 170C (150C fan)/325F/gas mark 3.

Put the frying pan on a medium to high heat and allow it to get hot. Add the amaranth seeds and cover with a lid. If it is hot enough, the seeds should start popping within a few seconds. They should have all popped within 20 to 30 seconds. Quickly set aside in a bowl.

Put the nuts and pumpkin seeds in a food processor and pulse a couple of times so the nuts are broken up, but remain chunky.

Put the popped amaranth, nuts and pumpkin seeds into a big mixing bowl with the salt, caraway seeds, oats, flour and coconut. Whisk together the oil and syrup with a fork, and stir this through the mix.

Whisk the aquafaba until soft peaks form and then stir this through the mixture (foaming the aquafaba will ensure it combines thoroughly).

Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes, gently forking through every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Finely chop the apricots and prunes and add to the mixture. Store in an airtight container.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jul/22/david-atherton-recipe-crunchy-vegan-granola